


Joseph: A Conversation in the Desert

by Roberta R (Desertgal)



Category: Starman (1984)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1985-05-01
Updated: 1985-05-01
Packaged: 2017-11-19 13:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/573930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desertgal/pseuds/Roberta%20R
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Immediately after Starman leaves, Mark Shermin assists Jenny Hayden. He has a remarkable hypothesis about Scott's conception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Joseph: A Conversation in the Desert

The great silver globe had disappeared. The sky above the Arizona desert was blue and cloudless under the late-summer sun. The wind had died down to a whisper; the snowflakes were already melting, leaving sizzling wet spots where they had lain for those few moments when the being from the stars had been taken back to his own people.

On the edge of the crater, lines of military helicopters sat, waiting for the next order. At the bottom of the crater, Jenny Hayden stood, her eyes filled with tears, wondering what to do next.

Mark Shermin shoved through the lines of khaki-clad militia, to the lip of the crater, where George Fox stood. The two of them stared down at the woman.

“You let him get away,” Fox grated out.

Mark puffed happily on his cigar. “Damn right I did. I let him go home. That’s all he wanted. To take a look around, see what was here, and then go home.”

“And what did he have to report?” Fox asked, dripping sarcasm.

“That we’re better than we think, and worse than he’d wanted us to be,” Mark said. He looked at Jenny again. His brain started racing, making connections, correlating the available data.

“I’ll want a full report from you,” Fox said firmly.

“I thought I was fired.”

“Not yet.” Fox turned and strode over to the nearest helicopter. “On my desk tomorrow, Shermin!” The pilot helped Fox into the passenger seat, then snapped the door shut. Mark watched the chopper lift and take off into the sky, in the general direction of Washington, D.C. His attention went back to the tired woman, scrabbling her way up the side of the crater.

He skidded halfway down to meet her and extended a hand. She stared at him with wide green eyes.

“Mark Shermin. Remember me?” He smiled reassuringly at her.

“You followed us,” she said, panting with the exertion of the climb.

“I tried to head them off,” Mark said. “Mrs. Hayden…Jenny…believe me, the last thing I wanted was for anything to harm him. I wanted to help. I still do.” He held out his hand to her. This time she grasped it and let him haul her over the edge of the crater. She fell to the ground.

Mark squatted beside her. “Are you all right? I mean—“

“They didn’t hit me, if that’s what you’re afraid of,” Jenny said. “I’m just tired. We drove all night, and it’s been kinda rough traveling these three days.”

“Then at least let me buy you coffee. I interrupted your breakfast, didn’t I? Mark helped Jenny to her feet and turned to the line of cars parked just beyond the fence that marked the crater’s legal rim.

Jenny was silent. Mark said, “We’d better get a story straight. Those vultures from the media have been dogging us right along. It’ll only be a matter of time before some jackass with a bug up his nose gets to you, and makes symbolic hay out of what’s happened.”

“I’ll just tell them the truth,” Jenny said. “He asked me to bring him here, and I brought him here.”

“There’s so much I want to know!” Mark exclaimed. “Where he came from, what it’s like there—“ Words failed him. He resorted to hand-waving. “Everything!”

Jenny turned to look at him. Dark, middle-sized, thinning hair, tummy running to pot, in a down vest and flannel shirt, with a day’s growth of beard, puffing a thick cigar…not Scott, she thought. Nothing like Scott. Nothing like the Other, either, except for his enthusiasm.

Mark stopped and looked at Jenny. Fine bones, dark curling hair, freckles, green eyes that radiated honesty. A down-to-Earth common-sense type, the last person in the world to believe what he was beginning to formulate. “Jenny,” he began, then stopped. It was too fantastic, but then the whole thing was too fantastic! “Jenny, please don’t think that I’m pushing or anything, but I have to know something. Are you…did he…I mean…” Mark stopped, red-faced.

Jenny looked at him. “It’s none of your business,” she said, and continued to walk toward the enormous Cadillac that had been bought with the winnings in Las Vegas.

Mark hurried after her. “Oh, yes it is. I’ve got to know! It’s important to my hypothesis.”

“Your what?” Jenny stopped again.

“My theory…that’s why they pay me all that money, to put together weird facts and come to a conclusion about them. I’ve put together certain facts, and come to a conclusion, but I don’t think you’re going to like it much, but I have to know if you’re pregnant.” He blurted the last word out.

Jenny took a deep breath and let it out again. “I wasn’t going to tell anyone. I didn’t want them poking and prying at me, making me into an animal in a lab or a zoo. Making the baby—“ She crossed her arms protectively across her middle.

Mark smiled beatifically. “That’s wonderful! And you’re right, of course. You mustn’t let this get around. We can be married in Vegas, on the way back to Wisconsin.”

“What???” Jenny shrieked. “Married? Why, for God’s sake? You and me? I don’t know you! You don’t know me!”

“I know that you’re brave, and loyal, and honest, and trustworthy…”

“You forgot thrifty and reverent,” she said sarcastically.

“…and that you’ve been through an experience that very few women have been through. As far as I know, only one other has.”

Jenny stared at him with wide green eyes. “What are you talking about?”

The words tumbled out of Marks mouth. “It just came to me. Here you are, a woman who wasn’t supposed to have children, and you’re pregnant…”

“You read my medical file!” Jenny was outraged.

“I wanted to know all that I could, so I could talk to you, get through to Him through you. See, the last time this happened, they didn’t know what was going on. There wasn’t a trained investigator around, just a tax collector, and he had to depend on hearsay, because he wasn’t there when it started…”

Jenny held up a hand. “Whoa! Wait a minute…” She took a deep breath. “Are you telling me—oh, no. That’s blasphemy!”

She turned and started across the desert again. Mark ran after her, still talking. “How do you know? How do we know? He said they’d been around before…”

Jenny stopped and faced her pursuer. “Listen, Mark, there was no miracle, no stars, no angels. We made love. Real, human sex.”

“I’m not surprised,” Mark said gently. “I don’t want to take that away from you. I’m not like Scott, or the Other. I’m just a guy who cares for you. You want to know about me? Let’s see – my grandfather came over from Poland, and all my family are steel workers. I’m the youngest of seven brothers and two sisters. I’m a real slob; I smoke cigars, I probably snore, but no one’s ever told me about it. I used to teach mathematics at Cornell…”

Jenny started to laugh. “What’s all this got to do with…what you just told me?”

Mark held her hands in his. “Jenny, this baby of yours is going to be very special. He’s going to need a father, someone he can talk to. Not a memory, but someone who’d be there, real, solid. He’s going to have feelings, know things others don’t – and he’s going to be so scared.”

Jenny’s face softened. “You really mean it, don’t you? You really think that…me?”

“I don’t know. I have a hypothesis. I’d sure like to be around to see if it proves out.”

Jenny looked down at their hands. Mark self-consciously let her go. She started to walk again, slowly., staring at the ground. “I can raise him myself. This isn’t the Middle Ages. This is 1985. Women are raising kids by themselves all the time.”

“What are you going to use for money?”

Jenny grinned. “I just won the Super Jackpot in Vegas, remember?”

“After Uncle Sam takes his cut, it won’t get you far. I make a lot. I don’t have to spend it on fancy Jacuzzis and electronic doodads. I’d rather spend it on you.”

Jenny faced him again. “I don’t love you,” she said bluntly. “And I don’t sleep with a man unless I love him, or think I do. And I don’t believe in a marriage without sex.”

Mark nodded. “I understand about that. And I know you’ve been through the wringer, emotionally. First losing Scott, then this…you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. We can talk about it when you’re ready. Until thing, I’ll wait. Or else, if I have to, I’ll do what I do now.”

Jenny’s eyebrows went up. Mark cleared his throat. “I’m not gay,” he said quickly. “But I don’t like going round the mulberry bush, or any of the other routes…so there’s a sort of agency I call…”

“A prostitute?” Jenny sounded appalled.

“They’re discreet, they’re clean, and there are no emotional entanglements,” Mark said defensively. “And under the circumstances, it’s the best solution. Until you’re able to accept— whatever happens. Believe me, Jenny, I care for you. I’ve been one step behind you all the way. Maybe that’s what was meant to be. Maybe that’s why He kissed me.”

“He kissed you because he didn’t know that men don’t kiss each other,” Jenny said flatly. “And so far, you haven’t told me why I should marry you. You could sort of hang around - a friend of the family?”

Mark shook his head. “Not good enough. Don’t you see how hard it’s going to be for his kid? He’ll be different, and he won’t understand why. Why do you want to make it harder for him by sticking a label of ‘bastard’ on him as well?”

“He won’t be different,” Jenny said. “He’ll look like Scott.”

“But he’ll feel like the Other,” Mark countered. “I know, boy, do I know! You know what different is? It’s reading STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND and wondering if that person is you. It’s being the scrawny runt in the family of giants – it’s knowing that you can put two and two together and come up with five or seven when the rest of them can’t even add one and one and get two, and have no one else in the whole town understand how important that is. Jenny, this kid’s going to need that kind of help. Please…I’m not trying to horn in on your privacy…but this is something I’m already a part of. Not as deeply as you, but I saw Him, I was there, I talked to Him. Maybe I understand more than you do about Him. I can help tell that part to the baby…”

Jenny smiled suddenly. “Oh, Mark…you’re crazy, you know that? Taking on me and the baby, and everything else…”

Mark smiled back at her. “It’s the greatest thing that’s going to happen since…well, since the last time. Only we’ll be better at it. We can understand, we can guide and keep on a top of things.”

Jenny’s smile faded. “But…we know how it ends.”

Mark nodded. “But maybe we can change that, too. This time…maybe?”

Jenny nodded and smiled again. Ahead of them, they could see a line of cars and vans, with a crowd of people being held back by the military guards. Mark took her hands again. They’re out there Jenny - the media - the vultures. They can turn you inside out. I ought to know – I’ve been dodging them for years! Will you let me help? Please?”

“For me or for the baby?” she asked, seriously.

“For both of you. And hell, for me too. Yeah, I’m selfish enough to want to see this through to the end. Maybe I’ll get a book out of it, too. Why not?”

Jenny’s fingers tightened on Mark’s. “All right, then. Just give me time…and be there when I need you?”

“I’m here now.” Mark put his arm around her shoulders and led her towards the waiting reporters. “Once we get the debriefing over with, we can go to Vegas and get married. Then we can get back to your place in Wisconsin, or if that’s too hard to take, we can visit my folks in Pennsylvania. They’ll like you. They’ve been waiting for me to get married for years.”

Jenny started to laugh. “Mark, you tell me one thing. What town is it you came come from?”

“Oh, no,” Mark laughed with her. “Well, this time we’ll have reservations, so there will be room at the Inn.”

The End


End file.
